Archives for January 2017

Get 750 Plenti points on $25+ Chilis purchase

American Express is leveraging some of the closer relationships with national retailers as part of the Plenti program they are running. One of the new promotions they have running is with the Chilis restaurant chain, maligned by foodies, but secretly loved by many 😉

You have to manually activate this offer in your Plenti account. After you do that, a purchase of $25 or more at Chilis gets you 750 Plenti points. That’s $7.50 to spend in the future through the Plenti rewards program (Rite Aid, Exxon-Mobil gas stations, Macy’s, etc).

If you haven’t done an offer like this before, it is important to read the terms and conditions. The $25+ has to be on food items and non-alcoholic beverages only. Everything else on your bill (alcohol, sales tax, other fees, tips, gift cards) do not count towards the $25 limit!

Limit one redemption during this promotional period but they have recurring offers, so if you are a Chili regular, pay attention to the “Partner Offers” over there and check the deadlines and terms of each one.

Here’s a screenshot of the promotion for reference:

January 15, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: , ,

Samsung Book Deals options for January 2017

If you have an eligible Samsung device, you can get one free e-book per month from a choice of four options, if you use the Kindle app downloaded from the official Samsung app store. This app is tuned to work with the S-Pen, so that’s a plus if you have a Note device!

Your benefit and how long it lasts depends on which Samsung device you purchased and when. I have no clue which devices qualifies for what, so that’s up to you to determine. IF you have an eligible device, the four e-books, under the “Book Deals” section of the Kindle app downloaded from the Samsung app store show a price of FREE/$0. If you see an actual price, it means you will pay for it. But fear not, even if so, you can always go to amazon.com/myk and reverse/cancel the purchase.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, these are the four choices for January 2017. You have until 1/31/17 to make a choice. Unlike Kindle First that offers brand new e-books, almost all the Samsung Book Deals options are already part of Kindle Unlimited, so they have a built-up review profile, which can help you device if none of the books shout “read me” immediately.

The choices are:

  • “First Activation” by the Wearmouth brothers (book #1 in a post-apocalyptic series)
  • “Katwalk” by Maria Murmano
  • “Opal Fire” by Barbra Annino in a Mystery series
  • “The Kentucky Bride” by Norah Hess in Steamy Romances

OPTIONALLY, once you buy the e-book of your choice, you can add audio narration (Audible audiobook) for typically an extra $2 more. In the strange world of e-book pricing, sometimes it is cheaper to buy the ebook + audiobook, than buy the audiobook directly!

January 15, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

Free January 2017 ebook from University of Chicago Press (DRM’ed)

The monthly free e-book promotions continue with the University of Chicago Press. This one sadly is Adobe DRM, so to download it you need an Adobe ID that is used for the evil DRMalia. Still, if you have an Adobe DRM ePUB ecosystem device or app, you may already be setup for it anyway, so not a lot of hassle. On the other hand, if you are a Kindle-only reader, then this is a kerfuffle.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the free ebook offered for January 2017 (you have until 1/31/17 to claim it) is a 2013 book, “Looking for Strangers: The True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood” by Dori Katz, 184 pages long. This is not a famous book, but it averages a solid 4.6 out of 5 with 12 customer reviews at amazon.com. You have to get the free e-book through University of Chicago, I am including the link to Amazon so you can read reviews and a sample if you wish!

This is a screenshot below visually explaining how to claim the free ebook. The link in the first paragraph is how you can claim it…

January 15, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

T-Mobile Tuesdays for 1/17/17 include Vanity Fair, Movie Rental, and Express and Lyft coupons

Time flies faster and faster these days, which means another T-Mobile Tuesday is almost always just around the corner. The Tuesday January 17 (2017) lot is not a bad one, two freebies and two coupons! Here’s a screenshot followed by a summary:

The two freebies is a 1-year digital subscription to Vanity Fair (like other magazines and digital publications they expand their coverage, in a way, it’s almost as if every magazine covers everything these days), and one digital movie rental at FandangoNOW. The movie rental amount you get is $5, so if you want to rent newer movies that cost $6, you have to pony up the extra dollar). Sadly, unlike Vudu that gave us an actual credit to do as we pleased, FandangoNOW’s freebie can only be used towards one movie rental, so if you rent a 99c movie, you use up the coupon, you don’t have a $4.01 balance to rent more like you would with Vudu. Vudu is pretty good 🙂

You also get two coupons. One is $20 off at Express (no, they did not close – the “The Limited” closed). You also get two $10 off coupons for Lyft. Lyft is trying to catch up to Uber which is more famous and popular, which is probably why Lyft keeps on offering T-Mobile Tuesday promotions 🙂

January 14, 2017 Filed Under: services Tagged With: , ,

FREE Noosa Yogurt for Lucky’s Rewards members

Good until the stores close on Tuesday 1/17/17, you can get a FREE 8oz Noosa Yogurt at Lucky brick and mortar stores. You have to be a Rewards member and you have to manually add the promotion to your rewards account. Using the email, it is simple, you just click on the big ole red button and that’s it. Then you buy the item, scanning your rewards card (or entering your phone number) and their computer deducts its price, making it free.

You may need an employee to make it go if you use self-checkout, although by now they are trained and can do it remotely from their “control terminal” that monitors all the self-checkout lanes.

As you can see from the pictures below, they have multiple flavors, you can pick one 8oz container for FREE! If they run out, they may be able to give you a raincheck for a freebie even (it happened to me once).

January 14, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: , , ,

The Office Depot Duracell Batteries Rewards have Arrived!

If you participated in the Duracell Battery Rewards at Office Depot and Office Max between Black Friday and December 31st in 2016, get ready to start spending! The rewards for all six weeks of the promotion have been loaded at once to eligible Rewards accounts! In parallel, they also loaded the regular December 2016 rewards (delivered in $10 multiples).

This just happened as you can see from the dates in the partial screenshot below ~ partial because I’m obviously not going to post my full certificate numbers 🙂

As you can see, these expire after 2.5 months, they are good until 3/31/17, so you don’t have to rush to spend them right now. Keep in mind that in the post Depot-Max merger, rewards no longer roll (this happened previously with Office Max but not Office Depot).

January 14, 2017 Filed Under: deal tips Tagged With: ,

Staples Premier Rewards members: $10 off $10+ coupon in your account!

If you are a Staples Premier rewards member, check your account or your emails. Staples is running a coupon promotion that gets you $10 off a purchase of $10 or more! The usual exclusions apply for couponing. This is pretty good. The coupon looks like this and has a unique coupon number (I did not include it for obvious reasons).

If you are not sure where it is, here’s how to find it:

1. logon to your Staples Rewards account
2. in the middle of the page, look for the “Redeemable Rewards and Coupons” section
3. under there, look for the “Available Coupons” section and click on “View coupon wallet”.
4. I have five in my account (I haven’t used any of them). This one is the bottom of the list
5. Print it or load it up on your phone and such
6. Happy shopping!

Mine has a February 4 (2017) expiration date, so be sure to factor that in!

January 12, 2017 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

Easy way to get 25 Bonus Starbucks Rewards stars

This is an easy to way get 25 Bonus Starbucks Rewards stars, if you have been offered this promotion by email or through their app. All you have to do is place one mobile order between January 10-16 in 2017 and you score an extra 25 Bonus stars, in addition to whatever you get from the actual order. But first, you must activate the promotion in your account by clicking the appropriate button in the email. You will only get one bonus during this promotion. 25 points is 1/5th of a reward, that’s worth over $1.25!

January 10, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: ,

T-Mobile Tuesday for 1/10/17 are a Bookshout ebook, 3-month IndieFlix membership, and $2 movie ticket

The Tuesday January 10 (2017) T-Mobile freebies, the first ones after another fiery “Uncarrier Streaming Event” (this one at CES 2017) is a media-centric promotion with three offerings:

The Bookshout promotion is ONE free e-book from a choice of ten. Eight of them are fiction, the other two are “new year, new you” type of books (diet and beauty tips). You can read these ebooks with a web browser or using the BookShout apps. Note that Bookshout is a “social media” type of app, it creates a profile for you automatically, so if you hate that kind of nonsense, go through the account and adjust things appropriately.

The $2 movie ticket is as it says, and you redeem it using the Fandango service for a movie theater ticket (the OG Fandango, not the M-Go FandangoNOW). The movie MUST be watched on Tuesday 1/10/17, so it’s kinda restrictive, but that’s why there’s a discount, Tuesdays are not exactly blockbuster movie nights 🙂

Last but not least, it’s a 3-month free subscription to movie streaming service IndieFlix. They typically offer a free 14-day trial, so with this promotion, you are getting a 90-day free trial. It is a for-pay service, $5/month or $40 per year prepaid. As the title suggests, they focus on indie films (think Sundance, Canes, etc) along with other randomness they are able to procure 🙂

January 10, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

Load $10+ with ChasePay, Get Two Free Starbucks Rewards

UPDATE 1/12/17: arggh, this is still broken. I talked to both Chase and Starbucks customer service. My many attempts at this got my Chase account locked out (you have to call customer service to unlock it – no big deal). This is a FAIL promotion 🙁

UPDATE 1/9/17: there are technical difficulties when you try to connect “ChasePAY” with the Starbucks app. You are able to login to ChasePAY, select your credit card, but then you get an error message telling you to contact Chase customer support. After you contact Chase customer support, you eventually get transferred to someone who knows what’s going on, and they tell you it’s a problem with the Starbucks app, so you have to call them… I will update this after I call the Starbucks customer service – or wait a few hours and retry hoping they fixed it…

ORIGINAL POST
This is a very good deal if you are part of the Starbucks Rewards program. If you load your Starbucks gift card balance with $10 or more using Chase Pay (Chase’s mobile payment service), you will receive 250 Bonus Stars, which are Two Rewards. You can easily redeem these rewards for items that cost $6 or more (bistro boxes, loaded drinks, sandwiches, etc), so this is better than a B1G1! Offer runs January 8-12 in 2017.

I haven’t done this promotion yet, and I haven’t used ChasePAY before, so I’ll update this after sign-up for this offer on Monday 1/9/17. STAY TUNED….

January 8, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: , ,

$2 Kindle ebooks with coupon (30 choices)

If you like discovering new authors, Amazon has just launched a new e-book promotion. Coupon code READJAN17 can get you any of the thirty participating ebooks for $2 each. You can buy as many as you want with this promotion. Make sure you enter the coupon code _BEFORE_ you buy any of them! Here’s how:

You can find all eligible books and read details at the Kindle January 2017 promotion which expires 1/31/17.

NOTE: I do not know if this promotion is targeted or everyone can use the coupon. I have no way of finding out, so YMMV if you haven’t received an email with this promotion. Try it on one e-book first, then check your account history to make sure you are charged $2 not the regular price.

January 7, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

Free Tor e-Book: “Off Armageddon Reef” (until 1/10/17)

If you like FREE and scifi, we have good news for you! The Tor free e-book of the month, good until January 10 (2017) is the e-book “Off Armageddon Reef” by author David Weber. You can get it by entering your email address at the Tor e-book club. You don’t even have to sign up for their e-mailing list to get the free ebook. After that, you can download it in .mobi (eg Kindle devices) or .ePUB (most reading apps and other e-readers).

This is book #1 of an 9-book series. This book (book #1 in the series) averages 4.1 out of 5 based on 300+ customer reviews at amazon.com.

Speaking of Amazon, if you are a Prime member, you can score one free e-book from a choice of six every single month. These are the choices for January 2017.

Happy reading 🙂

January 6, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

4oz Peets Winter Solstice Tea Tin for $4 w/free S&H

Don’t walk, run to the Peets Clearance sale where you can get a 4oz tin of Peet’s Winter Solstice loose-leaf tea for $4 with free shipping. Supplies are limited as this was a holidays 2016 tea. This is a great price, $1 per ounce, and you get to keep those solid Peets tea tins!

NOTE for Peets purists: these are Mighty Leaf branded tea tins since this is a new post-Mighty-Leaf-purchase tea.

January 6, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: ,

Gold Reward Members: Double Stars on January 9

The start of the year is raining Bonus Stars at Starbucks, probably trying to get a post-Holiday shopping surge for the new year. For Gold Members of their Rewards program (you have to make a certain level of purchases to qualify for the Gold level), January 9 in 2017 is a Double Stars day. You can earn those on all purchases made throughout the day. The usual exclusions apply.

Check your email/app to verify that are eligible. This offer does not require activation. You can also check right after you make a purchase, usually within a few seconds to minutes, you can see your new Stars balance in the Transaction History in the Starbucks app, so you can do the math and verify you are getting double stars because you go on a shopping spree 🙂

January 6, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: ,

Starbucks Rewards: 50 Bonus Stars on Iced Tea + Lunch Item combo

Another Starbucks Rewards YMMV offer is making the rounds. This offer too requires manual activation (sounds more complicated than it is, you just press one button). This is YMMV as usual since I have no way of knowing how many people are offered this.

You get 50 Bonus Stars (in addition to your regular stars) if you purchase TOGETHER a Shaken Iced Tea AND a Lunch item. This has to happen in the same transaction, not separately. Lunch items as they are defined for this promotion EXCLUDE breakfast sandwiches, which they are not considered a lunch item. You can use the menu in their app (mobile ordering section) to verify what is a breakfast item.

The rest of the food items qualify as lunch items: the prepackaged salads, the bistro boxes, the wraps, the paninis and the non-breakfast sandwiches. The time of the day you buy these does not matter. What decides it is the actual products you buy.

This offer runs for three days only, January 6-8 in 2017, but you can use it as many times as you like! 50 Stars are 40% of a reward, so assuming you spend your future rewards on $6+ items, it’s like getting the tea for free. You also earn the regular stars on the purchase and you should be able to combine it with the After 2 PM promotion.

January 5, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: ,